Combined Virtual Agent release notes for upgrades from Yokohama to Zurich

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated August 11, 2026
  • 8 minutes to read
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    Summary of Combined Virtual Agent Release Notes for Upgrades from Yokohama to Zurich

    This consolidated release notes document provides ServiceNow customers with a comprehensive view of updates, new features, changes, deprecations, and activation information for the Virtual Agent product during upgrades from the Yokohama release family to the Zurich release family. It serves as a practical guide to help customers prepare for their upgrade by highlighting key enhancements and important pre- and post-upgrade tasks.

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    Key Features

    • Assistant Designer: Introduced in Yokohama Patch 7 and enhanced in Zurich Patch 4, this centralized administrator experience enables creation and management of LLM-based chat and voice assistants. It includes three main areas: Assistants, Asset library (formerly Virtual Agent Designer), and Analytics.
    • Conversational Settings: Manage settings for assets directly from the Asset library page, streamlining configuration.
    • Virtual Agent Designer Enhancements: From Yokohama Patch 6 and continuing in Zurich, customers can start creating conversational LLM assets directly within Virtual Agent Designer, access the Now Assist Panel as the default assistant, and control table bot response links with an easy toggle.
    • AI Connector Utility: Select AI agents to handle tasks, linking custom skills to generative AI, and manage AI agents within Virtual Agent Designer.
    • Chat Surveys: Available for Anthropic Claude on AWS and Google Gemini LLMs, allowing pre-chat and post-chat surveys compatible with LLM user inputs.
    • Integration with Collaboration Tools: Enhanced support for Slack and Microsoft Teams, including synthesized responses and improved response message streaming. Zurich Patch 1 adds integration with Google Workspace chat, supporting Virtual Agent, NLU, Notifications, and live agents.
    • Virtual Agent Server Settings: The dynamicsteploaderenabled parameter controls stacked Agentic AI message delivery to the server, offering customization for message handling.
    • Dark Theme Support: Zurich introduces the Coral theme with a dark mode option for web and mobile, improving readability and reducing eye strain.
    • Now Assist and Microsoft Copilot Integration: Zurich replaces legacy Microsoft bot framework with the Custom Engine Agent (CEA), enabling multi-turn conversations and discovery of Virtual Agent and Now Assist features via Microsoft Copilot.

    Changes

    • The Test button in Virtual Agent Designer now opens the chat widget directly for easier assistant testing.
    • Dynamic Translation calls for Now Assist are optimized to trigger only when unsupported languages are detected.
    • Table bot response control with “Show links for each record” toggle is available to activate clickable links in conversation outputs.

    Deprecations

    • Support for Now Assist in Conversational IVR was removed in Yokohama.
    • Starting with Zurich, Sensitive Data Handler and Sensitive Data Masking capabilities are hidden and will no longer be available for new installations but continue to be supported. Customers are advised to transition to the Data Privacy application.
    • Microsoft LUIS is no longer deployed, enhanced, or supported starting in Zurich.

    Activation and Requirements

    • Virtual Agent is a ServiceNow AI Platform feature requiring activation of the Glide Virtual Agent plugin, which needs a separate subscription. Virtual Agent Lite is available to ITSM customers without activation.
    • In Zurich, Virtual Agent is active by default with no new additional requirements noted.
    • Supported browsers include Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge with no new browser requirements introduced in Zurich.

    Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

    By upgrading from Yokohama to Zurich, customers gain access to a robust centralized assistant management experience through Assistant Designer, enhanced integration with collaboration platforms like Google Workspace, Slack, and Microsoft Teams, and improved AI handling via the AI Connector. The introduction of dark theme support improves user accessibility and comfort. Customers should prepare for deprecations by transitioning to recommended alternatives and review activation needs to ensure uninterrupted Virtual Agent functionality post-upgrade.

    Consolidated page of all release notes for Virtual Agent from Yokohama to Zurich.

    How to use this page

    To help you prepare for your upgrade, we have combined the cross-family Virtual Agent release notes onto one page. Read this summary of the new features, changes, and updated information for your product from Yokohama to Zurich.

    Tip:
    If there were no updates for a release notes section in a certain family release, we included a short note for your reference. For example, if a product did not have any updates in Tokyo, the row says "No updates for this release."

    Important information for upgrading Virtual Agent to Zurich

    Before you upgrade to Zurich, review these pre- and post-upgrade tasks and complete the tasks as needed.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    New features

    Between your current release family and Zurich, new features were introduced for Virtual Agent.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama
    Yokohama Patch 7
    Assistant Designer
    Create and manage LLM-based chat and voice assistants within Assistant Designer, a centralized assistant administrator experience. Assistant Designer is comprised of three main areas: Assistants, Asset library (previously Virtual Agent Designer), and Analytics.
    Conversational settingsConversational settings
    Manage the settings for an asset directly from the Asset library page.
    Yokohama Patch 6
    Create a Virtual Agent topic
    Start the create flow for all supported conversational LLM assets directly from Virtual Agent Designer.
    Assistants in Virtual Agent Designer
    The Now Assist Panel - Platform (default) assistant is now available in Virtual Agent Designer.
    AI Connector utility
    Select AI agents to handle tasks in the AI Connector utility. For more information on AI agents in Virtual Agent Designer, see Managing AI agents and Using AI agents in Virtual Agent topics.
    Virtual Agent Designer Table bot response control
    Slide the new Show links for each record toggle switch to activate links for each record in the output in your Virtual Agent conversation.
    Virtual Agent server
    • In chatHandshake, set dynamic_step_loader_enabled to true to send stacked Agentic AI messages to server. Set dynamic_step_loader_enabled to false to avoid sending messages.
    • Pre-chat and post-chat surveys are now available for Anthropic Claude on AWS and Google Gemini LLMs. For more information on surveys, see Chat surveys.
    Yokohama Patch 3
    AI Connector Utility
    Link custom skills to generative AI to add their functionality to LLM conversations.
    AI agents and agentic workflows in Virtual Agent Designer
    View AI agents and agentic workflows created in AI Agent Studio in Virtual Agent Designer.
    Shorten responses option for bot text response
    For bot text responses, use the Shorten responses toggle in Virtual Agent Designer to turn on the Show more option in the chat on the user side.
    Yokohama Patch 1
    Application scope for topics
    Select the application scope for topics in Virtual Agent Designer.
    Yokohama Early Availability
    Synthesized response in Slack conversations
    Generate synthesized responses in Slack conversations with Now Assist.
    Virtual Agent feature support in Microsoft Teams conversations
    Generate synthesized responses in Slack conversations with Now Assist.
    Custom skills in Virtual Agent Designer
    View skills created in Now Assist Skill Kit in Virtual Agent Designer.
    Chat surveys
    Create chat surveys compatible with LLM-enabled user inputs, aside from the Carousel user input.

    Zurich
    Zurich Patch 4
    Assistant Designer
    Create and manage LLM-based chat and voice assistants within Assistant Designer, a centralized assistant administrator experience. Assistant Designer is comprised of three main areas: Assistants, Asset library (previously Virtual Agent Designer), and Analytics.
    Conversational settingsConversational settings
    Manage the settings for an asset directly from the Asset library page.
    Zurich Patch 1
    Integrating with Google Workspace
    Integrate Google Workspace chat with the ServiceNow® conversational interface features, including Virtual Agent, Natural Language Understanding (NLU), Notifications, and live agents.
    AI Connector utility
    Select AI agents to handle tasks in the AI Connector utility. For more information on AI agents in Virtual Agent Designer, see Managing AI agents and Using AI agents in Virtual Agent topics.
    Virtual Agent server
    • In chatHandshake, set dynamic_step_loader_enabled to true to send stacked agentic AI messages to the server. Set dynamic_step_loader_enabled to false to avoid sending messages.
    • Pre-chat and post-chat surveys are now available for Anthropic Claude on AWS and Google Gemini large language models (LLMs). For more information on surveys, see Chat surveys.
    Create a Virtual Agent topic
    Start the create flow for all supported conversational LLM assets directly from Virtual Agent Designer.
    Assistants in Virtual Agent Designer
    The Now Assist Panel - Platform (default) assistant is now available in Virtual Agent Designer.
    Integrating Now Assist in Virtual Agent with Microsoft Copilot
    Custom Engine Agent (CEA) is replacing the legacy Microsoft bot framework, allowing Microsoft Copilot to discover Virtual Agent, Now Assist, and use multi-turn conversations.

    Changes

    Between your current release family and Zurich, some changes were made to existing Virtual Agent features.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama
    Yokohama Patch 6
    Test assistant options
    The Test button in the Virtual Agent Designer canvas directly opens up the chat widget.
    Dynamic Translation calls
    For Now Assist, if native translation is enabled, a Dynamic Translation call is only made if an unsupported language for native translation is used.
    Table bot response control
    Use the new Show links for each record toggle switch to activate links for each record in the output in your Virtual Agent conversation.

    Zurich
    Zurich Patch 1
    Table bot response control
    Use the new Show links for each record toggle switch to activate links for each record in the output in your Virtual Agent conversation.
    Test assistant options
    The Test button in the Virtual Agent Designer canvas directly opens up the chat widget.

    Removed

    Between your current release family and Zurich, some Virtual Agent features or functionality were removed.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Deprecations

    Between your current release family and Zurich, some Virtual Agent features or functionality were deprecated.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    Support for Now Assist in Conversational IVR was removed.

    Zurich

    Activation information

    Review information on how to activate Virtual Agent.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama
    Virtual Agent is a ServiceNow AI Platform feature that is available with activation of the Glide Virtual Agent plugin (com.glide.cs.chatbot), which requires a separate subscription. For details, see Activate Virtual Agent.
    Note:
    The Glide Virtual Agent plugin initially installs the Topic Recommendations and Conversational Analytics applications. Subsequent updates to these apps must be installed from the ServiceNow Store.

    ServiceNow® Virtual Agent Lite is a subset of the Virtual Agent platform that is available to ServiceNow® IT Service Management (ITSM) customers. It doesn't require activation and works with ITSM Virtual Agent Lite conversations, which are also available to ITSM customers.

    Zurich

    Virtual Agent is a ServiceNow AI Platform feature that is active by default.

    Additional requirements

    If any additional requirements were introduced or changed for Virtual Agent we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Browser requirements

    If any specific browser requirements were introduced or changed for Virtual Agent we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    Virtual Agent supports various browsers, including Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. For more information, see Browser support.

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Accessibility information

    Review details on accessibility information for Virtual Agent, such as specific requirements or compliance levels.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    		 No updates for this release.

    Zurich
    Dark theme
    The new Coral theme includes a dark theme option for web and mobile experiences. This option is commonly used to alleviate eye strain and improve readability.

    Localization information

    If there are specific localization considerations for Virtual Agent we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama

    The ServiceNow® Localization Framework is integrated in Virtual Agent.

    Zurich

    		 No updates for this release.

    Highlight information

    If there are specific highlight considerations for Virtual Agent we have noted them here.

    Release Release notes

    Yokohama
    Yokohama Patch 7
    • Create and manage LLM-based chat and voice assistants within Assistant Designer, a centralized assistant administrator experience.
    Yokohama Patch 6
    • Start the create flow for all supported conversational assets directly from Virtual Agent Designer.
    • Enhance the user experience with Slack response message streaming capability.
    Yokohama Patch 3
    • View people information in the synthesized response along with people citation when you search a person in Microsoft Teams chat.
    • AI agent support for Virtual Agent.
    • View AI agents and agentic workflows in Virtual Agent Designer.
    • Select AI agents to handle tasks in the AI Connector utility. See AI Connector utility, Managing AI agents, and Using AI agents in Virtual Agent topics for more information.
    Yokohama Patch 1
    • Enhance the user experience with Microsoft Teams response message streaming capability.
    Yokohama Early Availability
    • Enhance the overall voice-based chat experience in Conversational IVR with Now Assist.
    • Generate synthesized responses in Slack conversations with Now Assist.
    • Generate synthesized responses in Microsoft Teams conversations with Now Assist.
    • View custom skills in Virtual Agent Designer.

    See Virtual Agent for more information.

    Zurich
    Zurich Patch 4
    • Create and manage LLM-based chat and voice assistants within Assistant Designer, a centralized assistant administrator experience.
    • Virtual Agent Designer home pageAssistant Designer Asset library:
      • View an updated UI for Virtual Agent Designer topics in the new Assistant Designer Asset library page.
      • Navigate between Assistants, Asset library, and Analytics tabs in the Assistant Designer UI.
      • Disconnect an LLM Assistant from a given asset with the Actions on Row icon in the Asset library.
      • See descriptions of each LLM asset type when selecting Create asset in the Asset library.
      • Read a tooltip that appears when you edit an LLM assistant under the Assistans tab and try to promote more than 6 topics associated with an LLM assistant.
    Zurich Patch 1
    • Google Workspace chat now works with the ServiceNow® conversational interface features, including Virtual Agent, Natural Language Understanding (NLU), Notifications, and live agents.
    • Start the create flow for all supported conversational assets directly from Virtual Agent Designer.

    See Virtual Agent for more information.